Reporting

<p>See photo and hear San Francisco artist Victor Zaballa tell how he received a kidney transplant, and what it means to him.</p>

<p>Mike Tharp is the executive editor of the <em>Merced Sun-Star</em>. He attended the Mar. 2010 seminar for the California Health Journalism Fellows as the editor of Fellow <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/users/danielleegaines">Danielle Gaines</a>, where he met the subject of this column, Dr. Edward Newton, chair of Emergency Medicine at the Los Angeles County USC Hospital.</p>

<p>Much of inland California is rural and poor, a sharp contrast with hip, upscale coastal life. Residents in the rural regions sometimes live with a high degree of pollution. Producer Devin Robins visited three women who became activists over concerns for their communities' health.</p>

<p>This Wednesday, Florida's <a href="http://ahca.myflorida.com/PublicMeetingNotices.shtml">Agency for Health Care Administration</a> is expected to permanently ban Vaginal Birth after Cesarean (VBAC) in the state's birth centers. In response, <a href="http://www.birthgirlz.com/">BirthGirlz</a&gt;, a national nonprofit based in Florida, is mounting a legal challenge, arguing that the ban is beyond the scope of the state health agency's role. See full story <a href="http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2010/03/19/florida-agency-vbac-state…;

<p><em>A Crisis in Caring: California's School Nursing Shortage</em> focuses on the critical shortage of school nurses in Northern California, and its impact on students, teachers, parents and whole communities. California's top leaders, local physicians and students with chronic illnesses weigh in on the crisis.</p>

<p>When her doctor told her she was a borderline diabetic, Rose Morales took the warning seriously. The 50-year-old Ventura woman had seen what diabetes had done to her relatives.</p>

<p>When huge earthquakes hit Haiti and Chile recently, teams of doctors from California flew there to help. But physicians in disaster zones are often hampered by the lack of a critical need often taken for granted: reliable power. Now, a California couple's handmade solar power kits are filling that need.<span class="tcr-reporter"> Reporter: Rachel Dornhelm</span></p><p><span class="tcr-reporter">listen <a href="http://bit.ly/a4T4Gu">here</a></span&gt;, aired on <a href="http://www.californiareport.org/">KQED's The California Report</a></p>

<p>Our take on the Robert Wood Johnson county health rankings</p>

A five part series on how the city and region is emerging as a national model for public healthcare. Part 1: Grand Junction healthcare is a model of low cost and high quality.